STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The formal announcement by the Returning Officer came after many twists and turns through the day

Actor Vishal's hope of contesting RK Nagar bypolls came crashing down on Tuesday evening as election officials rejected his nomination papers for the second time the same day. Vishal's nomination paper was rejected as the actor only had 'valid' signatures of eight proposers, not the mandatory ten.

Two of the ten people that the actor had enlisted in his nomination paper alleged that their signatures were forged. However, Vishal stated that the two proposers had made the allegations under duress.

The formal announcement by the Returning Officer came after many twists and turns through the day. Hours earlier, Vishal had announced that his nomination papers had been accepted by the Election Commission after being rejected once.

As per the provisions of the Representation of People Act, an independent candidate must be proposed by 10 persons residing in the constituency from where the candidate is filing his nomination.

According to a report in Hindu, the actor provided an audio clip which had recorded a phone conversation between an AIADMK party supporter and one of the proposers who had claimed her signature had been forged. The supporters had allegedly threatened family members of the proposer to submit a complaint that her signature was forged.

Since the authenticity of the audio clip could not be ascertained, a senior EC officer decided to reject his application late on Tuesday night.

Earlier in the day, the actor had filed his nomination for RK Nagar bypolls, a seat that has remained vacant ever since the demise of late CM J Jayalalitha.

"I'm disappointed that entire system right now they need to give a proper answer, they just can't give a letter... it's for everyone to see. Today's world we have video, we have WhatsApp, we have all the evidence," the actor told NDTV.

Incidentally, J Jayalalitha's niece Deepa had also filed her nomination which got rejected as she had left several mandatory columns blank.